


A Tale of Three

by AMaskOnTwoFaces



Series: A Mask On One Shots [5]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Abuse of all forms of punctuation, But not quite a fic, Drabble, Dumbledore is Death, Not quite a poem, One Shot, abuse of commas, prose
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2020-08-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:22:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25837990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AMaskOnTwoFaces/pseuds/AMaskOnTwoFaces
Summary: There once was a tale of three brothers.
Relationships: Albus Dumbledore & Harry Potter, Albus Dumbledore/Gellert Grindelwald
Series: A Mask On One Shots [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1866877
Kudos: 29





	A Tale of Three

**Author's Note:**

> I said that the next thing I would post would be a fic called Soul Bound, but my muse is fickle, even when it comes to editing, so it's not quite ready yet. This is why I normally don't post on any sort of schedule.
> 
> As it is, I'm literally falling asleep trying to write these tags and summary, so hopefully this is coherent. The fic itself should be fine, I just hope I transferred the formatting correctly.

There once was a tale of three brothers.

_The eldest brother wished to rule Death, to have it follow his every wandstroke..._

Gellert Griniwald had been in love with Death. 

With a strong spine and hair of flaming red, the man that Death masqueraded as looked at him with adoration for his plans to bring balance to society. But when Death felt that the costs were too high, it turned against him, working to undo his plans for the world. 

Death would be too powerful to kill. It would no doubt prevent its body's demise until it desired otherwise. No, Gellert had thought, there had to be another way to get Death to stop working against his plans. They were made as a tribute to Death; why was it no longer happy with such a thing? Something changed, and now Death looks upon him with pity instead of adoration. Something must change again. 

And something did change.

Death came for Gellert before Gellert could abuse Death any longer.

* * *

There once was a tale of three brothers.

_The middle brother wished to trick Death, to use trinkets to recall what had already crossed over..._

Tom Riddle had been afraid of death. 

Death was in turn wary of Tom Riddle. Anyone with that much drive to escape it was someone to watch closely over. 

Lord Voldemort aptly named himself after his goal; “Flight from Death”, indeed. He split his soul into eight separate pieces in his efforts to evade Death’s grasp, but in the end, his own greed was his undoing.

Killed by the very trinket designed to fool Death. 

Gone from the world before he even passed his prime.

* * *

There once was a tale of three brothers.

_The youngest brother wished to hide from Death, but when it was time, he walked up and greeted Death like an old friend..._

Harry Potter had been cursed with too much life. 

His body carried more soul than what was natural, and there was only one remedy for that, no matter how unfortunate for one so young. 

His soul burned too bright for the other humans to ignore, its unnatural size always attracting undue notice. Good attention and bad. The abusive, the adoring, the spiteful and smothering and jealous and curious and lethal. He would attract it all with his soul too big, but the only way out was through. 

Harry Potter embraced Death. 

He walked right up to it, handed off the mangled bit of parasitic soul, and readily returned to life, one that was no longer filled with such strife. 

* * *

_There once was a tale of three brothers._

Death popped a lemon drop in its mouth, smiling at a job well done.


End file.
